Alain Willaume photographs families during and after their meals, focusing on everyday household rituals. In The common part, at the end of the meal, Willaume asks each members of the families to distance themselves from the reality and to seek inner concentration. His images reflect this estrangement and invite the viewer to an unusual confrontation. The result surprises and disquiets the viewer: the contrast between the empty plates, the daily background, the gaze, the intensity and the detachment of the subjects portrayed. The photographer takes us to the crossroads between two worlds: the privacy of an intimate ritual and the boundaries of an inner landscape.

This series has been commissioned during a residency in the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy) by the SETSE Project in partnership with Rencontres d’Arles (France). The exhibition has been inaugurated in 2010 during the Fotografia Europea festival of Reggio Emilia (Italy).
With this series, Alain Willaume has been awarded the first prize of the Sony World Photography Award 2011, category Fine Art-Portraiture.